Are we overthinking referendums?

When Anthony Albanese recently suggested holding two constitutional referendums on Australia Day next year, he was thinking way outside the square. The senior Labor frontbencher cast his proposal as a response to the increasingly virulent displays of opposition to the date of our national celebration: “Instead of change the date,” he said, we should “enhance” it by turning it into a celebration of (he hoped) the success of those national votes.

Albanese has ambitions to be Labor prime minister — preferably the next one — and his behaviour should be viewed through this prism. But let us take this idea at face value.